Find Laney

• laneys @ northeastern.edu
• Meserve Hall 051
• Remote meetings/OH: Zoom
• LinkedIn

Inclusivity, equity, and leadership in computer science education

CS is for everyone, and you belong here. As Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs, I help shape the curriclum that all of our undergrad students study here at Khoury, and it's central to my role and my values that our educational experiences are rigorous, inclusive, and grounded in ethical responsibility.

Recent Updates

• Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs, official as of July 2026.
• Last Lecture for the Northeastern class of 2026 (absolute career highlight for me!)
• Women's History Month Videos, in collaboration with Prof. Gabriela Gongora-Svartzman

Recent and upcoming courses

  CS1800 Discrete Mathematics ( Fall 2026 )

  CS3000 Algorithms ( Summer 2026 )

  CS2100 Program Design & Implementation I ( Spring 2026 )

In July 2026, I was named Khoury College's Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs. My goal in this role is to design curricula that are welcoming, intellectually challenging, and socially responsible. I care deeply about broadening participation in computing, making our discipline more diverse and inclusive, and helping students think critically about ethics and bias in technology.

Before this administrative role, I was Khoury's Director of Teaching Faculty (Boston) 2023-2026. We have over 40 fantastic teaching faculty here on the Boston campus, and I tried to be their advocate and biggest cheerleader. Khoury's teaching faculty are exemplary teachers, engage with our local communities, and conduct world-class research. When I stepped into the Associate Dean role, I was glad to recommend Prof. Ghita Amor-Tijani as my successor; finding and creating opportunities for others is an important part of my leadership style.

Leadership Highlights

• Director of Teaching Faculty (Boston), 2023-2026. Replaced in this role by Prof. Ghita Amor-Tijani.
• Director of Broadening Participation, 2022-2026. Replaced in this role by Prof. Carter Ithier.
• Senate Committees - Faculty Handbook 2023-2024 (chair), 2025-2026, 2026-2027. UUCC 2021-2022.
• Chair, Khoury Teaching Faculty Hiring Committee (Boston) since 2022. We have made several fantastic hires and overhauled the entire process to ensure equity and inclusion at all steps of outreach, interview, and offer.
• Faculty advisor for student groups FirstByte, WREN, Code4Community, and KTP
• Northeastern Faculty Senate 2021-2025, and Senate Agenda Commitee 2024-2025.
• Northeastern Provost Search Committee, 2025.
• I started Khoury College's annual Broadening Participation in CS Award, given to Carla Brodley (2022), Keith Bagley (2022), Kimberly McKimmon (2023), Bethany Edmunds (2023), Jonathan Mwaura (2024), and Tyré Richards (2024). (Prof. Mwaura went on to receive the prestigious SIGCE BPCE Award!)
• Khoury College Area Chair: Broadening Participation (2022-2023). We don't have departments here, but we have Impact Areas as of Fall 2022, and I led the one related to diversity & inclusion in its first year.
• STRIDE Member 2022-2026.

Teaching Highlights

• I believe in Khoury's mission of CS for Everyone and am committed to increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion within and beyond computing.
• Along with Prof. Jonathan Bell, I am one of Khoury's AI Faculty Fellows.
• In Fall 2024 I co-developed and co-taught with Prof. Darcelle Lahr a new interdisciplinary Humanics course. We're applying transformative justice approaches to support communities of recently incarcerated women of color, through a partnership with The National Council.
• I co-organize the teaching-faculty Birds of a Feather session at the SIGCSE conference most years.
• In Spring 2023, I co-taught with Profs. Keith Bagley and Sami Rollins a seminar for Align students around professional identity and development.
• Northeastern University Excellence in Teaching Award, 2021
• Khoury College Excellence in Teaching Award, 2021.
• Technical Advisor for the Center for Inclusive Computing.
• In 2022-2023, I co-led with Profs. Vance Ricks and Meica Magnani a research program for graduate and undergraduate students in ethics within computer science.
• Presentations on inclusive teaching and equitable grading at UIUC's CS Summer Teaching Workshop, NE GWise's Annual Conference, and others.
• Align Program pre-Align math course with Prof. Alden Jackson
, developed 2020.

Links

• News @ Northeastern article about my Last Lecture for graduating seniors (2026).
• Women's History Month Playlist, a collaboration with my colleage Prof. Gabriela Gongora-Svartzman (2026).
• Khoury News article about Women's Community of Code (2024)
• News @ Northeastern article about SMASH and the amazing Align students teaching! (2022)
• Khoury News article about SMASH x Northeastern (2022)
• Khoury News article about Summer 2021 courses.
• News @ Northeastern article about 2021 teaching awards.
• Huntington News article about Women's Community of Code.
• The Huntington News interviewed me one time and some of my origin story is in there.

Videos

• About Khoury's CS Major (part of CS1200)
• Random teaching video from post-Covid times (no dogs in this one :(
• Random teaching video from Covid times (featuring my dog Tugboat!)
• From Megan Rapinoe to Grace Hopper
• I once had a food truck
• I really don't fit in in Silicon Valley

Download CV

I've been a full-time faculty member at Khoury College of Computer Science since 2018 and have added leadership roles alongside my promotion to Full Teaching Professor in 2023.

My mission in life is to dismantle computer science's reputation as an intimidating and inaccessible field. This happens through teaching, community engagement, and leadership within and beyond Khoury College. I focus a lot on supporting the success of women and people of color in computer science. As a field, we have a long way to go with diversity and inclusion, and I want to contribute as much as I can to ensuring the success of everyone along the way.

 

I've been lucky to have incredible teachers -- my first comp sci professor at Simmons College as an undergrad and my PhD advisor at Dartmouth College cared so much about teaching (and about their students) that it really inspired me to do more in computer science. I try to live up to their examples every day.

I didn't write a line of code until college, and to this day I don't write code for fun. But I love it as my job, and the fact that I haven't done it my whole life doesn't make me any less of a computer scientist. No matter when in your life you've tried some programming, or made a career of it -- doesn't matter. We all belong here.

With my husband Tom in Montana, 2024. I ran the Missoula Marathon (had a great time but did NOT see a moose, which was one of my goals for that trip!)

I run with two local running groups, the PIONEERS Run Crew and the Heartbreakers. In my experience, runners are about the most friendly and welcoming group of people you'll find in any community.


With the PIONEERS at 26.TRUE Marathon

Tom and I have two dogs and I will talk about them incessantly if you let me. They're both from Great Dog Rescue New England, and they look cute as hell but let me tell you they are a handful.


Carol & Grizz Strange

We also used to have a sweet, mellow bulldog called Tugboat. You might have caught a glimpse of Tugs if you've watched my older lecture videos. He died in 2020 after many naps on our comfy couch.


Tugboat Strange (2019)